Life Sciences Centre

Construction Status:
Completed
Project Size:
555,216 sf
Client:
Faculty of Medicine
Completion Date:
2008
Location:
2350 Health Sciences Mall
Vancouver
Architect:
Bunting Coady Architects,  Diamond + Schmitt Architects
Achievements:
2006 Vancouver Regional Construction Association
2006 International Illumination Design Award
2006 Building Magazine Green Building Design
2005 Masonry Institute of BC Merit Award-Institutional
2005 BOMA Earth Award
2005 IESNA in Energy and Environmental Design Award
2005 NWCB Building of the Year
2005 Consulting Engineers of BC Engineering Excellence Award of Merit
2005 The Energy and Environmental Design Award
2005 The Brick Industry Association
LEED Gold

The Life Sciences Centre is where UBC Properties’ institutional project management began.

In 2002, Premier Gordon Campbell announced that the government would expand education for caregivers through a new Life Sciences Centre at UBC on the condition it would be open for the start of the 2004/05 school year. It would be the largest building on campus and needed to be designed and built in less than 30 months — an ambitious feat for UBC, which had limited procurement methods.

Photo by Brett Ryan

With our extensive experience and flexible procurement methods used for successfully developing residential neighbourhoods at UBC, UBC Properties was asked to complete the project. We initiated a fast-track construction program in March of 2002 to build the 530,000-square-foot facility, which came in on time and under budget. Working with UBC, the project ensured the goal of doubling the number of graduating medical students with a capacity of 700 researchers in 88 laboratories.

The Life Sciences Centre is the largest building in Canada to achieve a LEED Gold ranking. Because of its success, this project set the stage for UBC Properties to assume project management for all institutional buildings over $5 million.